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Go-Go, Yesterday and Today by Iley Brown II

The early 1970s in Washington, D.C.,

marked the beginning of a new musical

sound that was still untitled. Basements in

neighborhoods throughout the city were convert­

ed into after-school stages and rehearsal halls for

budding bands and musicians. In many parts of

the city, an organist would meet up with percus­

sionists and drummers, who

in turn would know of a

horn player. Bands were cob­

bled together, and bonds

were formed.

To satisfy audiences of

teenagers, young adults, and

grown-ups, local "funk"

bands would play the radio

hits of Mandrill, Kool & The

Gang, New Birth, Average

White Band, or Herbie

Hancock, among others.

Musicians and singers began

to provide listeners with something extra - a

sound they could call their own because it was

homegrown.

A fresh new energy with percussion-based funk

(bongos, congas, cowbells, whistles) as a bedrock

for rhythm and blues, inspired by the national

funk and soul music surge, was the beginning of

the music known then and now as "go-go."

Instrumentalists in and around Washington,

inspired by this movement, were now 'jamming"

and playing the hits at recreation centers,

summer-in-the-park concerts, or "show-mobiles"

throughout the city and newly blossoming

suburbs of Landover, Pepper Mill Village, Capitol

Heights, and Chillum, among others.

Dozens of bands across the city, such as

Experience Unlimited, the Young Senators, Chuck

Brown and the Soul Searchers, Trouble Funk, Lead

Head, Hot, Cold Sweat, Cro Magnum Funk, Stacy

& the Soul Servers, Class Band & Show, Mouse

Trap, The Shadows, and go-go icons including Ice

Berg Slim and Big Tony, began to add the "live"

features of go-go to their shows or recordings:

choreography, smoke and fog machines, go-go

dances, and extended instrumental solos including

the trademark cowbells, whistles, and drum and

conga solos added to known radio songs popular­

ized by local radio stations. Radio hits that became

go-go hits were "Family Affair" by Experience

Unlimited, "Run joe" by Chuck Brown, and

"Trouble Funk Express" by

Trouble Funk, which is a

take from "Trans Europe

Express" by Kraftwerk.

In live performances audi­

ences engaged the bands in

call-and-response segments

of songs, usually during

percussion breaks ranging

from a three-minute teaser

- a short percussion solo

with strains of the radio

version of the song - to as

much as 17 minutes of

percussion and call-and-response. Chuck Brown,

Trouble Funk, and Reds and The Boys all popular­

ized this style of go-go. And the music lives on

today because of the creativity of its style of song

crafting. As a full-fledged movement began to

grow in D.C. and spread elsewhere, promoters and

record labels including TTED- DETT, I Hear Ya,

and jam Tu all released hits. Their contributions

have kept the music going for nearly 30 years.

Go-go has enjoyed local, regional, national, and

international success, and its influences are

evident in the music of hip-hop inventors Africa

Bambaataa, Doug E. Fresh, and most recently Will

Smith, who included a version of "Pump Me Up"

Photo: Go-go has influenced D.C. style, as exhibited in the jacket worn by Rare Essence band member Andre Johnson. Photo by Darrow Montgomery

by Trouble Funk on his Willenium CD. There are

also local record and production companies,

including PA Palace, releasing cassette tapes of the

ever-popular go-go groups Only 1 Purpose

(01P), Rare Essence, Chuck Brown, and

junkyard. A book documenting go-go will be

published by Billboard next year.

Iley Brown II is a native Washingtonian and has been a Jan of go-go music since its inception. He has worked extensively in the music industry in New York, Los Angeles, and overseas.

competitive "step show" at Howard University in

1976. Today stepping can be found on many local

campuses, and performances are shared

frequently with District residents.

But stepping is no longer just for fraternities

and sororities. As stepping has received wider

exposure in D.C. and the country, schoolchildren,

K-12, are performing the dance with tremendous

enthusiasm. Step teams can be found in numer­

ous District high, middle, and elementary schools

with teachers using the dance form as a way to

foster teamwork, discipline, and community

D.C.-based churches have also picked up the

form with Gospel step teams

found in practically every "Stepping" Out by C. Brian Williams

Stepping is a uniquely

American, percussive

dance genre that grew

out of the song and dance

rituals performed by histori­

cally African-American frater­

nities and sororities. As dis-

StepP,ing is, w1thout

quadrant of the city

Stepping is definitely an

important part of our city's

daily cultural life.

que?t~on, a r1s1ng

art form.

C. Brian Williams is Director of Step Afrika! USA, and co-founder of the Step Afrika! International Arts & Cultural Festival.

cussed by scholar Jaqui A.

Malone in her book Steppin' on the Blues, stepping is "one of the most exciting

dance forms to evolve in the twentieth century"

The tradition's " ... precise, sharp and complex

rhythmical body movements combined with

singing, chanting, and verbal play require creativ­

ity, wit, and a great deal of physical skill and

coordination." Stepping is, without question, a

rising art form with growing popularity among

hundreds of thousands of Americans, young

and old.

Washington, D.C., more so than any other city

in the country, can claim "bragging rights" to this

traditional dance form. As home to Howard

University, the birthplace of several African­

American fraternities and sororities, the city has

witnessed the beginnings of the tradition, dating

back to 1907, all the way through the first

The Vietnamese Wedding in Washington, D.C. by Thanh-Thuy Nguyen

Vietnamese Americans are the fastest­

growing ethnic group in Washington,

D. C. While some Vietnamese, the "boat

people," came after the end of the Vietnam War in

1975, most of the District's Vietnamese communi­

ty arrived 15 to 20 years after the fall of Saigon.

They are a diverse group, mainly ex-military,

government officials, and family members who,

having associated with the United States during

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